No hat-trick celebration for Bale

21 October 2010 10:00

Viewed : 12

Tottenham winger Gareth Bale refused to take any pleasure from scoring his first career hat-trick after his side went down to a 4-3 Champions League defeat against Inter Milan at the San Siro.
Spurs looked set to be humiliated when holders Inter raced to a 4-0 lead inside 35 minutes through goals from Javier Zanetti, a Samuel Eto'o penalty - after Heurelho Gomes had been sent off - Dejan Stankovic and Eto'o again.
But Bale almost completed a sensational comeback single-handedly, scoring one of the goals of the season before netting twice in the closing seconds to further enhance his burgeoning reputation.
The Wales international was coy about his achievement after the match, however, insisting the only thing that mattered was the team performance, which improved markedly after an awful start.
"It's hugely disappointing. We all knew we could do better in the first half. We started off sloppy and we paid the price," Bale told ITV1. "But I think with 10 men we showed what a good team we are, and if we'd had 11 men on the field it could have been a different game. It just wasn't a lively start and we paid for it. I think next time we'll learn from this mistake and hope not to have a start like that ever again."
Asked what was going through his mind when he completed his hat-trick, Bale said: "I just had the ball and put it in the back of the net. There wasn't too much to think about. I was more thinking about getting back into the game, and we did that. But time ran out on us."